Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Regulus calendula
Tveten describes and pictures the Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
(283), "It is grayish above and pale dusky gray below, with
a yellowish wash on the under-parts and two prominent white wing
bars. A broken white eye-ring gives it a startled wide-eyed look.
The ruby crown
of the male is usually concealed and only in courtship or territorial
defense does the agitated kinglet flare his crown feathers ...
Because they feed primarily on insects, they must move south for
the winter months, and it is then that they invade Texas in large
numbers ... making them one of the most common of all our small
perching birds during that season." This bird is also a close
match to the image in Alsop's Birds of Texas, page 387.
Photo taken with a Nikon D90 with a Nikon 400mm f/5.6.
This one
is posed.
November 5, 2011.